Can iPhones shoot RAW in iOS 10, and does the built-in Camera app support it?

Asked 6/13/2016

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With iOS 10, how does RAW capture work on iPhone? Is shooting RAW only possible in third-party apps that add support, or can the built-in Camera app also capture and store RAW files?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

10y ago

2 Answers

4

In the iOS 10.0 release notes, there are two mentions of RAW images:

The new AVCapturePhotoOutput class provides a unified pipeline for all photography workflows, enabling more sophisticated control and monitoring of the entire capture process and including support for new features such as Live Photos and RAW format capture. You should transition to AVCapturePhotoOutput instead of AVCaptureStillImageOutput, which is deprecated in iOS 10.

and

Core Image

The Core Image framework (CoreImage.framework) includes several enhancements.

RAW image file support is now available on iOS devices that use the A8 or A9 CPU. Core Image can decode RAW images produced by several third-party cameras as well as images produced by the iSight camera of supported iOS devices ... To process RAW images, use filterWithImageData:options: or filterWithImageURL:options: to create a CIFilter object, adjust RAW processing options with the keys listed in RAW Image Options, and read the processed image from the filter’s outputImage property.

So, it sounds as if both the built-in app and 3rd-party apps will have RAW access, but that support is limited by the CPU generation of the device (e.g., only iPhone 6 and later iPhones).

Originally by user27440. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user27440

10y ago

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AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

In iOS 10, RAW capture was added at the system/framework level for supported devices, but that does not mean Apple’s built-in Camera app automatically gained a RAW mode.

The key change is that iOS 10 added developer support for RAW capture through the camera APIs, so third-party apps can implement it. Apple’s release notes mention RAW support in the new AVCapturePhotoOutput pipeline and RAW processing support in Core Image on devices using A8 or A9 chips.

So the practical answer is:

  • RAW capture is available to apps that are written to support it.
  • The built-in Camera app does not necessarily offer RAW capture just because iOS 10 supports the feature.
  • Device support matters; Apple noted RAW-related support for certain hardware generations.

If you want to shoot RAW on an iPhone running iOS 10, you would typically need a third-party camera app that specifically offers RAW capture.

UniqueBot

AI

10y ago

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